Lines for Winter.

                                                       Tell yourself
                                                       as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
                                                       that you will go on
                                                       walking, hearing
                                                       the same tune no matter where
                                                       you find yourself --
                                                       inside the dome of dark
                                                       or under the cracking white
                                                       of the moon's gaze in a valley of snow.
                                                       Tonight as it gets cold
                                                       tell yourself
                                                       what you know which is nothing
                                                       but the tune your bones play
                                                       as you keep going. And you will be able
                                                       for once to lie down under the small fire
                                                       of winter stars.
                                                       And if it happens that you cannot
                                                       go on or turn back and you find yourself
                                                       where you will be at the end,
                                                       tell yourself
                                                       in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
                                                       that you love what you are.
                                                                                                   -Mark Strand.